Thanksgiving 2011

I've been so wrapped up with Christmas preparations, that I haven't had a chance to blog about the fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday, we spent at my daughter's house in Idaho Falls.  So . . . a little late, but here it is:

We arrived the night before, and all met up for dinner at "Bubba's BBQ".

The BBQ was delicious, and we hurried back to Carissa's house to start the preparations for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was cold, but the roads were dry, so it was smooth sailing on the drive up.

Hunter and Laura made the most yummy sweet potato pie.  She is a really good cook.

We all spent Thanksgiving morning preparing the dinner.  My sister, Carolyn, arrived with her family at noon.

My nephew, Charlie kept Nola entertained reading books and making faces at each other in the bathroom mirror.  She spent a lot of time giggling.

Great appetizers were served at 1:00 p.m.  They were so good, and we were all so hungry, that we ate too many of them, kind of spoiling our appetites for dinner.

The table was set and we were all ready for dinner at 3:00 p.m.

Everything was so delicious.  We all wished we had more room in our stomachs, as we were full much too fast.

Grandma Joan made the pies.  They were yummy too, however, I think Charlie had his whipped cream without the pie.

This was when Charlie told Carolyn and I that we were too old to wear "bling".  I think he may have received such a "talking too" from us, that his ears were burned off.

We were all a little tired, at the end of the day.

Especially me . . . you can see I wasn't getting much knitting done, after all the cooking and clean-up.  Right after this picture was taken, I changed into my pajamas and coat, gearing up to hit the "door crasher" sale at Target at midnight.

It was a wonderful day.  I am so thankful to have a healthy family and plenty of food on my plate. 

Our alpaca herd has grown.  We just acquired 5 adult male alpacas.

Meet Waffles, Spud, Melvin, Apple Jack, and Butterscotch.  Cocoa, Licorice and Chip were not there this day, as they had been sent to the farm to get Cocoa bred.  Such a hard life for these girls.  Always pregnant, even when still nursing a baby.

This is Butterscotch.

These are Waffles and Apple Jack.

This is Spud.  He has extremely high grade fleece, but he is not the sharpest tool in the shed.  However, he is the only one who will fight with Melvin for food.  Melvin seems to be in charge of everything.

I just made my first trip to the mill, to see how our fiber would be milled into yarn.  It was fascinating to see the process, and so exciting to choose the weight, and other fibers to be combined with the fleece sheared from Cocoa and Licorice, last Spring.  I can't believe I forgot my camera, but I'll be sure and take lots of pictures the next time we make the trip.

Christmas knitting has me so bogged down, that I can hardly think of anything else.  Happy knitting!

Christmas Slippers

For the past 10 years, I have been knitting these felted slippers for my family and friends.  They are so warm and cushening, that I receive lots of request for new ones.

It generally takes me about 10-12 hours to knit a pair, so the time really adds up, when I receive multiple requests.  So, since I have 10 pair to make for Christmas this year, I decided there had to be a faster way.  So . . . . I decided to try and write a pattern for a crocheted version.  The pattern is posted at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-felted-slippers

This is how they begin.  Two strands of 100% worsted weight wool is used, along with a size K crochet hook.  Above is the toe shaping.

Then the foot and heel are created, along with the foot opening.

A pair of slippers takes 2-3 balls of yarn, at a cost of approximately $15 per pair.

A separate soul is crocheted, and attached to slipper.

This soul piece makes the slippers so cusheny.  They are a great thing to wear, when you have to spend an extended chunk of time, standing.  I love to wear them when I have a full day of cooking, or folding laundry.  I can't get them on fast enough, when I get home from work at night.  They are great on your feet after a day of running around in heels.

I've even converted from knit to crochet, when making the roses and leaves, which are attached to the girly slippers.  The instruction for making the roses and leaves, is included on the pattern, along with careful instructions on how to felt them.

This is how they look, once they have been felted.  They look just like the knit version, if you ask me.  The felting can be tricky, as they are placed in hot, hot water in an agitating washing machine.  The pattern is sized for Youth, Women, and Men's sizes.  Once you've made a few, you could even size the pattern down for children or babies.

They often come out of the felting process, completely different, so they have to be stretched and shaped, when they are wet.  My husband has really strong hands, and he is a necessary part of the stretching done on my slippers, to assure that two in the same pair, end up being the same size.

Crocheting these slippers, has reduced the time it takes me to make a pair to 6-8 hours, if I can convince my husband to sew on the flowers.  Being a taxidermist, he is use to hand-sewing wet leather hides.  This has probably contributed to the arthritis he is experiencing in his thumbs.The only down-side, is that crocheting with such a large hook and with such thick yarn, tends to make my hands hurt.  Knitting, even on large needles, seems to be easier on my hands.   However, it could just be that I love to knit and hate to crochet, so perhaps my hands are just not used to it, or perhaps it is the pressure to crochet as fast as I possibly can.

This is the pair I have been wearing for the past 4 years.  If you look closely, you can see the holes in the toes and heel.  I wear these slippers all of the time, even outdoors.  I wear them to pick vegetables in the garden, to take out the garbage, and to even run to the car on a snowing evening, when we are making a trip to the gas station or to get some late-night ice cream.  When they start looking like this, I simply sew up the holes with regular sewing thread, and throw them in the washing machine on "hot" for an additional felt.  This tightens them up, as they stretch out, over time, and the fibers re-felt where the holes were.  This adds years to their wearability.  I really need to make "me" a new pair, but I can never seem to find the time.

It is my hope, that the publishing of this pattern will give me a resource to refer people to, when they ask me to knit them a pair.  In addition, I've decided that if I really charge for my time, the slippers should cost at least $40 per pair.  Perhaps this would be a good deterent too.  There seems to be a lot more people who know how to crochet, than to knit.

Well I better quit blabbing, and get back to my Christmas Knitting.  I have tons to do, and only a few short week left for knitting.  I've even high-jacked my newly-retired Mother to help with my Christmas knitting this year.  I'm sure she thinks I am completely crazy!  I say this every year . . ., but next year I'm not committing to knitting anything for anyone!

Hurry and crochet yourself a pair.  They will come in really handy when you are cooking that Thanksgiving Dinner, later this week.   Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  . . . and happy knitting.

The Annual Halloween Party - 2011

Every year, my sister hosts a fabulous Halloween Party.  This year was no exception.  We had a great time.  We ate delicious Navaja Tacos, and lots of treats!

As always, the costumes were great too.  Here are the "Coats" as Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, and the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.

. . . and the "Halls" in all their striped glory.



. . . and the "Straups".  Trever hates to wear costumes, so I thought they
were quite creative in their costume design this year.



. . . and the "Steadmans".  Our hosts for the party.  Thanks Care!



. . . and the "Thompsons".  This year's costume design WINNERS. 

As you can see, they came as the "Angry Birds".  Emily is wicked with a glue gun.  We had a great time!

I spent this last weekend trying to design a knitted cozy for a hot water bottle.  I often need something to warm up my feet when I go to bed at night, and I hate to use something electric, that I have to try and turn off, when the toes are warm.  This seems to be the perfect solution. 

I even searched out the method for a two-sided cast on (magic loop cast on: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhBIS0AhhQY ) so I could knit this little wonder in the round.  It worked out great, and I can now see why you would want to knit socks, from the toe up.  There would be no annoying seams across the toes.  Happy Knitting!

My "Hot Water Bottle Cover" pattern is available for free at: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/knit-zilla-ravelry-downloads.

I'm Back . . .

I've just returned from a fabulous cruise.  We flew to New York, and sailed up the east coast to Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine; St. John, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and back to Boston, MA.

We sailed on the Explorer of the Seas.  A floating city, with every amenity.  I even managed to site two whales one afternoon, when I was on the treadmill.  It pays to exercise in front of a window.

The fall colors were beautiful, but the only thing orange that I took a picture of . . . was me.  Here we are, in front of the oldest working lighthouse in the country (Portland, Maine).  This is truly a place where I would love to live.  Old, victorian style homes with great views of the harbor and many lighthouses.

This lighthouse is in Peggy's Cove, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  I was surrounded by these huge, granite bolders, all set in a quaint little fishing village.

I did find some time to knit.  Here I am on the tender boat, on the way to St. John.  I had to take a project that was small enough to ride in my purse, along with all of the needed yarn.  I decided to try and finish the sleeves of a sweater I started back in the Spring.  Not the most flattering picture.

It was a bit cold and windy.  Steve decided to take along his favorite sweater.  It was knit  years ago, but he continues to drag it out, whenever he is cold.  Oh, and he is standing in the public garden in Halifax.  This is wear many of the dead were burried after the sinking of the Titanic.

"One if by land . . two if by sea".  This is the Old North Church, in Boston, wear laterns were hung in the bellfree to warn of the direction the British would be coming during the Revolutionary War.  We also saw the original home of Paul Revere.

On our way home, we spent a day in New York City.  It was a real treat for me, as I had never been there before.  I've never seen more taxis, people, or fabulous fabric stores.  We ran like crazy, but managed to see everything we hoped to.

We took a harbor cruise, where I was able to see the original Brooklyn Bridge.

But this was my ultimate goal.  Seeing the Statue of Liberty.  The night we sailed out of the New York Habor, it was too foggy to see her at all, and I was afraid I might return home having come so close and never actually being able to take a picture.  But . . . mission accomplished.  Here she is.

This was a trip of a lifetime, that I'll never forget.  Truly the best birthday ever, which I celebrated on the ship.  Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes!

Now that I'm back to reality, the crush of Christmas has fallen upon me.  I will be knitting up a storm in the next few weeks, and hope to have some things to share with all of you knitters out there, soon.  Happy knitting!

Summer's End

I can't believe that another Summer has past, and so quickly too.  Lots of Spring/Summer rain made the season seem so short.

The garden has grown great this year.  Lots of tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, beets, cucumbers, spagetti squash, radishes, pumpkins, lettuce, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and of course, lots of zuchinni. 

I hope the first freeze holds off until all of these tomatoes ripen.

This is my strawberry patch.  I've learned alot about raising these this year.  A little mixture of dish soap and water, sprayed on the green berries and leaves, keep the worms from eating the strawberries before they are ripe enough to pick.  We have gotten a lot of strawberries, but they have been really small.

My strawberry pots filled out nicely, but not many berries came from them. 

Like always . . . the zuchinni plants went crazy.  We were disappointed to find that two of our cucumber plants were mismarked at the nursery, leaving us with 4 zuchinni plants, and only one cucumber plant.  I have been trying every zuchinni recipe known to man.  The best one yet, has been for zuchinni brownies.  They are super moist.  However, I'll always think zuchinni cakes (made like crab cakes) are my favorite.

My flowers have been beautiful this years too. These are the pots we have on the front porch.  These are my favorite color geraniums (strawberry fizz).

I've been babbling on about this knitting project for months now.  My "Carmine" is finally finished!  You can read all of the detail on this project at: Lori's Ravelry Projects. 

I'm always a little afraid to try my finished knitting projects on.  I guess I'm always just a little scared they won't fit, and I will have spent all of that time and money for nothing.  Thus, I let "Bula" (my body double) pose for these pictures.

Since Bula is exactly my same size, without a head and arms, I am sure this sweater is going to fit me perfectly.

I learned so much from knitting this pattern, designed by Belinda Boaden.  Along with some new stitch designs, I learned a new method for increasing a raglan sleeve, how to knit perfect waist and arm shaping, and a fabulous neck binding.  We are going on a New England Cruise in a few weeks, and this sweater will get it's maiden voyage (no pun intended) then.

The yarn suggested on the pattern was "Scrumptious" from Fyberspates.  It truly is scrumptious, and a true joy to knit with.  The yarn cost was little "spendy", but the DK weight blend of merino wool and silk were well worth it.  I had 2 1/2 balls of yarn leftover, which could easily be knit into a hat, scarf or socks to match.

I'm knitting away on a new design.  It is a bulky, cabled cardigan, with a hood.  The samples are being knit for my daughter-in-law's Mother and Sister.  They will be warm, mother/daughter sweaters, to be given as Christmas gifts.  However, I hope to have the pattern written and test knit for release at knit-zilla-ravelry-downloads, before Thanksgiving. I'll have some sneak peaks in my next post, along with lots of cruise photos.  Happy knitting . . .